The Guantánamo project is built around a series of images taken from the television featuring th US navy base of Gunatánamo on the island of Cuba, a photograph of the entrance of the city of Guantánamo and the song titled Guantanamera, which is heard in the background. Thus, the Guantánamo project is a critical reflection on what certain places evoke when they are remembered and, in particular, refers to the visual burden we are forced to endure, which is the result of contemporary culture pre-eminently based on media, which has ended up configuring a number of images of the world which determine a way of understanding and assimilating it. This is the case of Guantánamo Bay, where the relationship seems obvious, since the word itself leads us to think firstly of the images of the prison camp - built after 9/11/2001 - so often broadcast on television. The truth is that the penetration into our psyche of all the events surrounding the military base, where the G.W.Bush administration confined the alleged members of Al-Quaida and Taliban, has erased the past and present of the city of Guantanamo, thus the prison has ended up to taking over the identity of the place.
In the same way, while listening to Guantanamera we do not imagine the prison camp or the citiy of Guantánamo. The reference the song evokes may be defined differently. First, it could be a romantic melody; second, it also comes from a background of protest songs against US-American imperialism, above all as regards the generation of the 1960s. It may also be seen as a symbol of Cuba's independence, since it was José Martí who wrote the lyrics, a revolutionary politician who was in charge of organising the war of 1895 for the independence of Cuba against the Spanish dominion.
Source: Warlike. Atles d'un món difícil / ed. by Magdala Perpinyà i Jordi Font. -
Mataró : Ca l'Arenas, 2011. - p. 42